Obama lauds Rudd in 'meeting of the minds'

By Michelle Grattan, Washington

March 26, 2009 — 12.00am

BARACK Obama was eloquent  despite his obvious tiredness and occasional distraction  as he welcomed Kevin Rudd, a policy soulmate, at the White House.

Sitting together in the Oval Office after more than an hour of talks, the President said Rudd's Government has shown "the kind of vision, not just domestically but on the international stage, that we greatly admire".

Obama said he and Rudd had "a great meeting of the minds" in their discussion of the global economic crisis and next week's G20 summit.

And then came the President's really personal touch, even if his mind slipped elsewhere for an instant. "I'm very grateful for secretary, or for Prime Minister Rudd's friendship. He has been one of the, one of the people who I've called on various occasions to  right after the election, and repeatedly over the last several months. I think he's doing a terrific job, and I'm looking forward to partnering him for some years to come."

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With a bevy of journalists clustered around and cameras clicking constantly, Rudd looked jet-lagged and perhaps slightly over-awed. However clever you are, and even if you speak Mandarin, it's hard to match the sparkle in the presence of a diamond if you are any lesser stone.

His words were to the point but more pedestrian than the President's. We had "a first-class alliance" and he was there to reaffirm it and to work on its future together. We shared a "mission" in Afghanistan; he looked forward to working with the President at the G20, and also to partnering the US on climate change.

"It's great to have America on board on this one and, Mr President, to see the return of US global economic leadership. We appreciate that very much."

Although the economic crisis dominated their meeting, Afghanistan was a major topic for Obama and the PM, with Australia anticipating but not yet receiving a formal request for more help. Speaking hours before news broke of three Australian injuries, the President's message to an Australian public that is against sending more troops was sympathetic but blunt. Obama promised the strategy would be improved, but made it clear that the battle would go on for years because "we can't allow vicious killers to have their way".

Yesterday was Obama and Rudd's first face-to-face encounter. Afterwards, the President walked his guest down a long path to the waiting car. On the way, Mr Obama pointed to some play equipment he's had installed for his daughters, where he can see them from his window.

An Australian reporter called out to ask whether he'd like to visit Australia.

"I would love to visit Australia," the President said. "Of course, I've been to Australia quite a bit (a reference to when he passed through Australia, while living as a boy in Indonesia). I love the Australian people," he said.

The path walk was put into the program by the Americans quite late in the piece. They may have wanted to give a sense of intimacy after the criticism they copped after the British Prime Minister, Gordon Brown, seemed to get the cold shoulder, apparently made worse by a bad a choice of gift (a box set of DVDs, to Brown's a first-edition, seven-volume biography of Winston Churchill and a pen holder carved from the timbers of the Victorian anti-slave ship HMS Gannet).

This time the President gave Rudd an historic score of The Star Spangled Banner; the PM handed over a personally signed copy of Thomas Kenneally's biography of Abraham Lincoln.

The President is frantically busy, especially this week, overwhelmed with trying to get his budget through Congress and his plan to deal with toxic assets launched. Hours after the meeting with the Prime Minister, Obama fronted his carefully staged news conference to sell his message.

No wonder he didn't have time to give Rudd lunch. But at the State Department, the PM found Secretary of State Hillary Clinton a gracious luncheon host.

Everywhere he goes in Washington, Rudd is welcomed richly. "America doesn't have a better friend in the world than Australia, a friend through good times and hard times," Clinton said.

Speaker of the House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi made special mention of the bushfires as well as the recent losses of soldiers in Afghanistan in her welcome.

Rudd has returned praise as well as receiving plenty of it, congratulating Congress "for their strong, decisive action in supporting the stimulus package for the United States economy", enthusiastically welcoming the toxic assets plan and telling Clinton that her recent visit to East Asia "sent a very strong and positive signal to our part of the world about this Administration's engagement with the Asian Pacific (region)".

It has indeed been mutual admiration between the Australians and the Americans this week.

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At his later press conference, Obama invoked Mr Rudd's name when defending himself against criticisms that he wanted countries to spend too much. "It's not just me" he said "I was with Kevin Rudd today, who was very forceful in suggesting that countries around the world, those with the capacity to do so, take the steps that are needed to fill this enormous hole in global demand."

A funny thing happened in the Obama press conference. He said of the economic crisis that "we're all in this together" and there are "no silver bullets"  the same cliches that Rudd uses. It's just that, coming from him, they seemed to have a little more sparkle.